I came across a reference of Pemberton being in a HQ dugout towards the end of the siege, described as 200 ft above the city, 600 yds from the lines.
Would this be on the grounds of the Willis house HQ, or a separate location?
It would not surprise me. There was a lot going on in Vicksburg during the 47-day siege, that in essence forced many residents of the city into "caves" and "dug-outs", as well as some soldiers. Pemberton`s Headquarters was struck by a shell and was destroyed on 30 May 1863, so it is very likely that Pemberton could have gone under ground at this time, for his own protection, until 4 Jul 1863 when he capitulated and surrendered the fortified city of Vicksburg and his 31,000 man garrison to General U. S. Grant.
There were two major assault`s on Vicksburg at the beginning of the 47-day siege, the first on 19 May 1863 and the other on 22 May 1863, Pemberton and his garrison repelled them both handsomely. This all but forced Grant to invest in the city and implement his siege, which lasted for 47-days. Pemberton did not provision the city nearly well enough before the assaults and siege and received a great deal of backlash for that negligence, which later led to his removal as a commander, being replaced by Johnston and then Polk. Pemberton was heavily supplied with munitions but extremely short in supply of food and fresh water. His men basically starved over a 47-day period and had to stay hunkered down in their entrenchments and earth works as Federal snipers were firing at anyone that popped their head above those entrenchments as the city was being shelled 24 hours a day (day and night), throughout the entire siege from General U. S. Grant`s artillery and Admiral Porter`s gunboats and iron-clads positioned at various points on the Mississippi river.
Over 500 "caves", referred to locally as "bombproofs," were dug into the yellow clay hills of Vicksburg. It was considered safer to occupy these "dug-outs" and "caves" than to remain in one of the houses in the city. People brought all of the comforts of home into the "dug-outs" and "caves", decorating them with rugs, furniture, and even paintings and tin-types of their loved ones. They timed their movement around the city, as well as their foraging for food, with the rhythm of the continuous barrage of shelling, dodging shells as they moved about. Because of numerous citizens' burrowing and digging into the hill sides, the Federal soldiers gave the town the nickname of "Prairie Dog Village", because of the appearance of the city which the 500 plus "dug-outs" and "caves" gave to the spectator on the outside of the city looking in.
The soldiers and residents alike, had to keep their heads down throughout the siege for their own safety. Admiral Porter's gunboats and iron-clads on the Mississippi river provided additional firepower to Grant`s forces, who had the fortified city surrounded, lobbing roughly 22,000 shells into the city and Confederate fortifications, in addition to what General U. S. Grant`s artillery batteries were sending into the city on a daily basis, which added another 25,000 shells over the course of the 47-day siege, that`s 47,000 total shells, resulting in an average of 1,000 shells being exploded in the town of Vicksburg per day. That breaks down to 41 shells an hour, 1 shell every 1.45 minutes (90 seconds), 24 hours per day, for 47-days and nights straight with-out stopping until the surrender.
As the siege of Vicksburg agonizingly continued, conditions with-in the Confederate lines and the fortified city worsened and deteriorated.
"When the siege commenced, it had been announced that there were provisions enough stored away to subsist the army for six months," noted a Confederate soldier who was there. This proved to be wrong as food rations were cut and then cut again to conserve what small stockpiles existed. Many of the army's mules and horses were set loose in no-man's-land because the Confederates lacked the fodder to keep them alive, while others were soon killed and thrown in the stewpot. Malnutrition and disease decimated the Confederate ranks. Morale declined as the much needed help and relief from Johnston`s relief army never materialized or manifested itself until too late. The psychological toll heavily placed on the citizens and residents of Vicksburg was considerable.
"It was an awful and strange sight," wrote one Vicksburg resident who witnessed the endless barrage of shelling.
"As I sat at my window, I saw the mortars from the west passing entirely over the house and the Parrott shells from the east passing by, crossing each other, and this terrible fire raging in the center." Another resident wrote;
"People do nothing but eat what they can get, sleep when they can, and dodge the shells." Even Confederate soldiers who were there witnessing everything first hand were moved by the great distress and suffering of the residents of Vicksburg, despite their own dire situations. One sergeant observed that
"delicate women and little children, with pale, careworn and hunger-pinched features, peered at the passer-by with wistful eyes from the caves in the hillsides."
Food and other supplies from outside had been completely cut off for a month and a half. This resulted in horses, mules, dogs, cats and even rats becoming part of the daily diet for soldiers and civilians alike, as food became more and more scarce and men were driven to more desperate measures and varying degrees of starvation. Some were so desperate that they were reduced to boiling the souls and uppers of their leather shoes and boots, in addition to anything else made of leather just to have something to feed on. In essence it was 47-days of pure Hell for those who were in Vicksburg during the siege.
To better illustrate the dire necessity of this hunger and want, in a letter home from Vicksburg during the 47-day siege, this is what Pvt. Jerome A. Haralson, 36th Regiment Mississippi Infantry, Company "F" (Hillsboro Rebels) wrote:
"we are so hungry that we`re boiling our shoes to drink the soup." They were actually boiling anything of leather; their shoes, saddles, saddle-bags, pouches, horse reins, belts, lashes and other accoutrements and then drank the very weak soup that boiling these items made.
The high ground on which the Confederate works were located, and most likely where Pemberton made his dug-out, proved to be less habitable, than were the Federal positions. According to one Union officer,
"we had the advantage of the rebel garrison in many ways because we were sheltered from the blistering heat of the sun by the forest shade, and had plenty to eat and the cool springs in the ravines furnished us an abundance of pure water, while the enemy was wholly unsheltered in their defensive works, reduced to almost starvation rations and a scarcity of good water."
In addition to starvation; scurvy, malaria, dysentery, diarrhea, and other diseases cut the Confederate ranks at Vicksburg, the odor of numerous deceased men and horses fouled the air, the wounded crying for medical help and water, as starvation weakened everyone else in pure agony as men, women and children searched for anything to put in their bellies. The suffering was utterly immense there, by both civilian and soldiers alike, so much so that after the surrender on 4 Jul 1863, the town of Vicksburg would not celebrate the Fourth of July for 81 years, that being until 1944 when they resumed the practice after America`s involvement in fighting World War II for the past 3 years with patriotism for our Nation being extremely high due to our participation in the War effort.
I had two Great Great Grandfathers, a Great Great Granduncle and a 3rd Great Granduncle who served and fought for the 36th Regiment Mississippi Infantry, and another Great Great Grandfather and a Great Great Granduncle who fought and served with the 40th Regiment Mississippi Infantry during the 2 assaults on Vicksburg and survived the 47-day siege. My Great Great Granduncle who fought for the 36th Regiment Mississippi Infantry was hit by a federal shell while in the entrenchments during the Federal assault on 22 May 1863 and was mangled, left to torment and suffer for 8 days before dying of his wounds on 30 May 1863 and is laid to rest at the Cemetery at Vicksburg.
There is much more to Vicksburg than meets the eye, more than most people realize. I initially began researching the several campaigns to capture Vicksburg, the two assaults on the fortified city and then the 47-day siege a couple of decades ago. Mostly to find out more of what my family members who were there had to endure, and the more that was revealed to me, through my research, the more that I wanted to know. I found it to be fascinating and one of the more interesting Campaigns in the western theatre of the American Civil War.
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